One thought on “A very short answer to Ed’s question “I wonder if Power is ashamed of this performance today”?”
It’s hard to not feel bad for everybody in that situation.
I’d kinda compare to US apologies for, say, slavery or for the Trail of Tears or whatnot.
On one level, yes! These things were done and they were wrong.
On another… everyone who participated is long dead. And the assumption that “The Turks” did this and so “The Turks” should apologize is similar to “white people owned slaves therefore white people should apologize for slavery”. The first part of that is, sadly, accurate. The second part, however, does not follow.
That said, the Armenians were screwed over and that’s something that does resonate down through generations. And, on one level, acknowledgment of wrong having been done is the least that they are owed.
But, much like Clinton apologizing for slavery… once the pretty speech has been given… now what? Feel better? Or do you feel like, nope, nothing has changed? The latter? So now what?
All in all, it’s hard not to sympathize with everyone involved.
And that’s without getting into the whole “so why does the US need to chime in on this, again?” thing.
It’s hard to not feel bad for everybody in that situation.
I’d kinda compare to US apologies for, say, slavery or for the Trail of Tears or whatnot.
On one level, yes! These things were done and they were wrong.
On another… everyone who participated is long dead. And the assumption that “The Turks” did this and so “The Turks” should apologize is similar to “white people owned slaves therefore white people should apologize for slavery”. The first part of that is, sadly, accurate. The second part, however, does not follow.
That said, the Armenians were screwed over and that’s something that does resonate down through generations. And, on one level, acknowledgment of wrong having been done is the least that they are owed.
But, much like Clinton apologizing for slavery… once the pretty speech has been given… now what? Feel better? Or do you feel like, nope, nothing has changed? The latter? So now what?
All in all, it’s hard not to sympathize with everyone involved.
And that’s without getting into the whole “so why does the US need to chime in on this, again?” thing.